This article is part of our DraftKings MLB series.
Here we go! After all this time and all this baseball, we've arrived at the World Series. The Texas Rangers are hosting Game 1 and taking on the…Arizona Diamondbacks? Wait, what? Before the season, the Diamondbacks being here was not expected. Heck, most people wrote them off after they lost the first two games of the NLCS. And yet, here we are.
Game 1 starts at 8:03 p.m. ET. For Showdown contest purposes, you have $50,000 in salary to dish out to six players. Your Captain will earn you 1.5 times the points, but also has an elevated salary. Here's a lineup I landed on for Game 1.
CAPTAIN
Evan Carter, TEX vs. ARI ($12,300): The moment has yet to be too big for Carter, and he's now reached his greatest achievement: Being my Game 1 Captain. In his brief regular season run with the Rangers he had an 1.238 OPS against righties and an 1.289 OPS at home. Then, the playoffs rolled around, and the lefty has a .987 OPS against playoff competition. Zac Gallen, a righty, had a 4.42 ERA on the road. To save salary, I ended up with Carter over Corey Seager, but it's barely a step down in terms of upside.
UTILITY
Nathan Eovaldi, TEX vs. ARI ($11,000): Rarely do I end up with a pitcher in my single-game lineups. Here, though, I am making an exception. Eovaldi has made four starts. Every one of them has been a quality start, and his team has helped him pick up a win each time. The Diamondbacks are a great story, but they allowed 15 more runs than they scored this season. This is arguably the easiest offense Eovaldi will face in the playoffs.
Gabriel Moreno, ARI at TEX ($7,200): Even if I think Eovaldi is going to pick up his fifth quality start of the postseason, it would not be wise to eschew Diamondbacks for your lineup. It's a one-game situation. All sorts of things could happen. Moreno's status as an elite prospect was built upon his defensive skills at catcher, but he did hit .282 with seven homers and six stolen bases this season. In the playoffs he's hit .279, but slugged .512 and hit three home runs. He's moved up Arizona's lineup and earned an opportunity to be used for DFS purposes, especially since Eovaldi has consistently fared worse against his fellow righties than lefties.
Nathaniel Lowe, TEX vs. ARI ($6,800): Lowe wasn't part of the offensive fireworks for the Rangers to start the playoffs, but that changed in the NLCS. He's on a six-game hit streak, and he has two homers in his last three outings. The lefty had an .833 OPS versus right-handed pitchers, like Gallen, during the regular season, so it's not surprising to see him turn it around.
Lourdes Gurriel, ARI at TEX ($6,400): Gurriel picked a good time to join the Diamondbacks, apparently. His 24 homers this year certainly helped get Arizona into the playoffs, where he's added two more home runs. This season, Gurriel was better against lefties than righties, but since 2021 his .772 OPS against righties is higher than his .755 OPS versus southpaws. Even this year, he hit for a higher average against lefties, but slugged .467 when facing righties.
Tommy Pham, ARI at TEX ($6,000): The Diamondbacks at least catch a righty for Game 1, which means Alek Thomas in the outfield and Evan Longoria where he belongs at this point in his career: Nailed to the bench. In that scenario, Pham has been the designated hitter. He had 16 homers and 22 stolen bases this year, and at this salary he's worth a shot. My other thought was Leody Taveras, but he was dropped to ninth in the Rangers' batting order for a reason.
